How I Got Into MIT (No Olympiads, No Crazy Hooks) — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is exactly how I got into MIT. Hi,
2. 0:02I'm Vinnie, a freshman in MIT
3. 0:03[clears throat] studying computer
4. 0:04science, data science, and economics.
5. 0:06And in this video, I'm going to dive
6. 0:07deep into my [music] application, talk
7. 0:09about my test scores, my activities, my
8. 0:11awards, and in the end, I'll provide
9. 0:13some useful tips for prospective
10. 0:15students applying to MIT. So, in terms
11. 0:16of my test scores, I got a 35 on the
12. 0:18ACT, which is suboptimal in my opinion,
13. 0:21but I made up for the fact that I got a
14. 0:2236 on math and science. And [music]
15. 0:24since I was a STEM major, I thought that
16. 0:25was completely fine. So in terms of my
17. 0:27classes, my school actually restricted
18. 0:28the amount of AP classes we could take.
19. 0:30So I just maximized all that so I could
20. 0:32maximize my GPA as high as possible. So
21. 0:34my freshman year I took [music] calculus
22. 0:36AB. Sophomore year took BC and AP
23. 0:38computer science A. Junior year I took
24. 0:41um a push, AP physics C mechanics. And
25. 0:43then since I was done with BC, my school
26. 0:46actually offered group theory and um
27. 0:48differential equations which is each of
28. 0:50them was a semester class. [music] And
29. 0:52then my senior year I was able to take
30. 0:53four advanced classes. So I took um AP
31. 0:56chemistry, AP physics, CNM, uh AP stat
32. 0:59was very easy. And then my two math
33. 1:02classes, there was a semester was linear
34. 1:04algebra and defyQ. So I just to maximize
35. 1:07the amount of STEM classes I could take.
36. 1:09So in my senior year, I only took
37. 1:10[music] advanced like STEM classes, but
38. 1:12my junior actually took a push because I
39. 1:14thought it would be a pretty useful
40. 1:15class to take and allowed me to maximize
41. 1:17my GPA. [music]
42. 1:17So at the end of the day, I would just
43. 1:19recommend people to just take as much
44. 1:21like hard classes they can take [music]
45. 1:22and show these colleges that like you
46. 1:24can actually take these hard classes at
47. 1:26the school itself. So the MIT
48. 1:27application is actually very unique than
49. 1:29like the traditional application.
50. 1:31There's actually a unique section for
51. 1:32like jobs, a unique section for summer
52. 1:34activities, a unique section for like
53. 1:36awards, scholastic [music] and
54. 1:37non-solastic, which was very useful
55. 1:39because my application had a bunch of
56. 1:40different uh pieces that I couldn't
57. 1:42traditionally fit in normal application.
58. 1:43So it [music] was very um beneficial for
59. 1:45me. So in terms of my jobs that I put
60. 1:47down, I worked I interned at a like a
61. 1:50local firm. [music] I was doing embedded
62. 1:52systems work at a firm called Intrepid
63. 1:54Control Systems. And I was there for a
64. 1:56summer, my [music] junior year summer.
65. 1:58And then I also for two summers I did
66. 2:00like on and off I did [music] a summer
67. 2:02camp like robotic summer camp
68. 2:03instruction. I was just teaching there
69. 2:05like teaching kids how to [music] build
70. 2:06robots and program them and such. And
71. 2:08then on the side like throughout the
72. 2:10year in the [music] summer I would
73. 2:11actually like have this side gig running
74. 2:13where I would sell these trading scripts
75. 2:15to people like that would automate
76. 2:16people's trades or like provide them
77. 2:19useful information based on their
78. 2:21current strategy. Now moving on to the
79. 2:22activity section. So I like to give the
80. 2:24opportunity to put four different
81. 2:25activities [music] on the application
82. 2:27and I started off with my most impactful
83. 2:29one which was my nonprofit that I
84. 2:31founded [music]
85. 2:31called Puzzler Foundation. And basically
86. 2:34I did the most amount of work on this
87. 2:35during my [music] junior year where I
88. 2:37would basically raise a bunch of money
89. 2:39raise $10,000 and we would donate to
90. 2:42like an orphanage in India and various
91. 2:43other places like schools nearby giving
92. 2:45them supplies [music] that they really
93. 2:46needed. Additionally, I raised over
94. 2:481,000 books by running book drives and
95. 2:50just donated them in the neighboring
96. 2:51libraries and schools that needed
97. 2:52[music] them more. And then my second
98. 2:54activity was a NLP research lab that I
99. 2:57was in [music] 3 years. So I published
100. 2:59three different research papers by the
101. 3:00time I graduated. But when I applied, I
102. 3:02had two research papers and one in the
103. 3:04works. And then my third activity was
104. 3:06actually sports. So I played soccer and
105. 3:09then I also ran track. [music] And that
106. 3:11was like a pretty fun thing. I think it
107. 3:13showed that like I did other stuff
108. 3:14outside just academics. And my final
109. 3:17activity that I put down was also
110. 3:18research. Um it was a bioinformatics
111. 3:20research. [music] Um, and there I didn't
112. 3:22actually get to publish the research by
113. 3:25the time I applied, but I did say it was
114. 3:27in the works because it was going
115. 3:28through the whole application process
116. 3:30when I applied to MIT. So, in this
117. 3:32section for what I did during [music]
118. 3:34summer, I first talked about the summer
119. 3:36camp I did. So, I did SSP, also known as
120. 3:38a summer science program. This was like
121. 3:40a 6 week long summer science program
122. 3:42that was kind of like a feeder to top
123. 3:43schools. [music] A lot of people from my
124. 3:45cohort and other cohorts actually do
125. 3:47come to MIT. So, I think it was a big
126. 3:49part of my application to put down to
127. 3:50actually get [music] into. And that was
128. 3:52the first summer camp that like summer
129. 3:54program that I put down. And then the
130. 3:56other two things I put down was I
131. 3:57actually made two courses on [music]
132. 3:58Udemi about stock trading. I think they
133. 4:00have over like 12,000 students like a
134. 4:02bunch of fivestar reviews. So, I just
135. 4:04put them all down. I made two courses
136. 4:05total. One like [music] during my
137. 4:07sophomore year summer and one during
138. 4:08like my junior summer. And then that I
139. 4:11just put down because I wanted to put it
140. 4:12somewhere in my application. And then
141. 4:14since I did [music] in the summer,
142. 4:15that's like the perfect place to put
143. 4:16down. And lastly is the award section.
144. 4:18So MIT splits it between five scholastic
145. 4:20awards and five non-scalastic awards
146. 4:22which allowed me to fill up more stuff
147. 4:23which is very beneficial to me. What I
148. 4:25did like I'm just going to highlight my
149. 4:26more important [music] awards um instead
150. 4:28of diving into everything else. But um
151. 4:30first was with BEX [music] Robotics. We
152. 4:33my team won judges award. We made um I
153. 4:35think it was semi-finals my junior year
154. 4:37and my senior year we were finalists but
155. 4:39I couldn't obviously put that in on
156. 4:41time. And basically another competition
157. 4:44I did was a drone competition. We made
158. 4:45it to the finals. [music]
159. 4:47um we couldn't actually attend it but I
160. 4:48still put it down that we qualified for
161. 4:50it and then um also was a two times like
162. 4:53gold PVSA was through my nonprofit did a
163. 4:55bunch of work there so that's like 500
164. 4:58hours of community service and then I
165. 5:00did a competition called like future
166. 5:01problem solving I won states like my
167. 5:03freshman year and my junior year and
168. 5:04qualified to international and I think
169. 5:07that's like my more important awards I
170. 5:09think like I also had some research
171. 5:11awards [music] so uh JSH um that they no
172. 5:14longer run anymore um but there. I I was
173. 5:17like top five at like my regional and I
174. 5:19qualified to international. [music] I
175. 5:21presented there. So that was my whole
176. 5:22application. But MIT allows you to
177. 5:24supplement your application with a few
178. 5:25other things. So I chose to do the
179. 5:27research supplement and [music] then the
180. 5:29maker portfolio. So a lot of you guys
181. 5:31have probably already seen my maker
182. 5:32portfolio, but I'll link it in the
183. 5:33description below. But along with that,
184. 5:35I actually submitted [music] some pieces
185. 5:36of writing and more description about
186. 5:38three specific projects. So the three
187. 5:40projects that I talked about was
188. 5:41actually my EEG headset project where I
189. 5:43talked more about my design
190. 5:45philosophies. what exactly went into
191. 5:46building it and actually coding the
192. 5:48headset. [music] But I actually didn't
193. 5:49finish fully coding the AID part of the
194. 5:52headset, but I still just talked about
195. 5:53my design philosophies [music] and the
196. 5:55systems that I would eventually use. And
197. 5:57then the second project I would talk
198. 5:58about is the drone. I would go deeper
199. 6:00into like [music] designing the drone,
200. 6:02like path planning and flying the drone
201. 6:04and things like that. And lastly, I
202. 6:06talked about my team's basically [music]
203. 6:08robotics robot. The like the path
204. 6:10planning stuff we went into designed
205. 6:12inside the robot, how we carried it, how
206. 6:14we modeled it, [music] and how we made
207. 6:15specific design choices that allow us to
208. 6:17perform at a very high level at the
209. 6:19world championships. And then my was my
210. 6:21research supplement. So a lot of people
211. 6:23at MIT do research and I think it helped
212. 6:25me a lot because a lot of my application
213. 6:28was centered around research and
214. 6:29actually [music] doing things um like
215. 6:31applying my knowledge. But for my
216. 6:33research portfolio, I talk about body
217. 6:34project. I didn't talk about anywhere
218. 6:35[music] else. So I talked about a brain
219. 6:38anism project where [music] I basically
220. 6:41published a paper along with it. So
221. 6:43there was two parts of the project. One
222. 6:44was like AI part, one was a like [music]
223. 6:46a CFD like blood flow modeling part. And
224. 6:48I published that part inside of a high
225. 6:50school journal. And that kind of like
226. 6:52completes my whole portfolio. And in my
227. 6:54opinion, I believe that my maker
228. 6:56portfolio like really like kind of
229. 6:58sealed the deal for me getting [music]
230. 6:59in because it really showed like what I
231. 7:02was able to do. really show firsthand
232. 7:04like [music] yeah I have all this
233. 7:05knowledge but I actually can put it into
234. 7:06place and actually join this maker
235. 7:08community at MIT. So just like a few
236. 7:10suggestions and tips for [music] people
237. 7:12looking to apply and also attend MIT. I
238. 7:14think one big huge thing [music] is
239. 7:16basically just going very deep into some
240. 7:18specific subject that's very common to
241. 7:20people here. So [music] a lot of people
242. 7:21here do like Olympiads or like campers
243. 7:23at different Olympiads. I think that
244. 7:24just really shows that like [music] they
245. 7:26are very knowledgeable about one
246. 7:28specific field that they're highly
247. 7:29interested in. So this is shows that
248. 7:31like when they come into MIT they can
249. 7:33further develop their interest and
250. 7:34actually like perform at [music] a like
251. 7:36a significantly higher level and
252. 7:38actually like take the classes that we
253. 7:39will have to take which are like
254. 7:40decently hard [music] and this just
255. 7:42shows the admissions office that like
256. 7:43you will thrive here and actually like
257. 7:45contribute to the MIT community at
258. 7:47large. So I guess like closing off this
259. 7:50video if anyone wants any tips or
260. 7:52specific [music] like help like join my
261. 7:54Discord server or send me an email. I
262. 7:56would love to help out. [music] And
263. 7:57thank you guys for watching.